1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to Internet search indexes and engines.
2. Background Art
There are millions of World Wide Web (“web”) sites on the Internet today, and so it is becoming increasingly difficult to index the available information quickly so that an individual can easily find the current and complete information (web sites) in which they have interest. Many search engines and search indexes on the web (hereafter web indexes) are simply too large to be useful. Sifting through the thousands of web sites that come from a single search or under a single topic (in an index) is often cumbersome and unfruitful.
The problem is two-fold. First, search indexes are very broad. Most people are not interested in every topic on the web; instead they are only interested in a small portion of the many topics that exist. Web users would like to have a web index that only encompasses their topics or subtopics of interest. But creating a customized web index is very time consuming and can be very expensive. Therefore, most people wade through many, many other topics to get to the few topics in which they have interest.
The second problem is with search engines on the web. The web is typically searched by keyword searches of the entire sampling of the web that has been indexed by any given search engine. These searches usually bring up a very large number of sites that have nothing to do with what the user intends to find. For example, someone searching for the poems of Robert Frost may simply type in the poet's name. The result, however, is often unproductive because most search engines can only search for the exact word or words and cannot put the word into context. Therefore the search results for “frost” may include the word “frost” in the wrong context such as in gardening tips. Another example is that a search for web sites about basketball courts may result in the word “court” being taken out of context and the searcher gets not only basketball courts (and other types of sports courts), but also get the supreme court, the court of appeals, etc.
The present invention provides a solution to the problems noted above by permitting individuals to create and organize search indexes specific to their needs.